In support of the victims of last week’s terrorist attacks, the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union has started a collection for the American Red Cross. On Friday, GUASFCU sent out a campus-wide E-mail informing students that it would match all donations made through the credit union until Sept. 28.

Students can either donate by filling out a form in the credit union lobby in the Leavey Center or by completing a form online at the credit union’s Web site, www.guasfcu.com.

Christopher Villar, GUASFCU chairman and CEO, said credit union staff came up with the idea Thursday night in hopes of encouraging more students to donate. Georgetown students responded in a short amount of time.

“The response has been tremendous,” Villar said.

As of Monday, Villar reported that 140 students had made donations totaling almost $4,300, many of them coming in over the weekend through the credit union Web site. Several students contributed up to $500, Villar said. Although GUASFCU staff members placed a $1,000 cap on the amount of money they will match, Villar said Monday that figure was likely to increase.

“When we initially came up with the idea of matching gifts, we did not anticipate the overwhelming response we have seen in the past few days,” he said.

Some student organizations have also made donations through the credit union. The Jewish Student Association and the Muslim Student Association collected contributions at a “tree of life” table in Red Square, where they also asked students to write prayers for peace and justice on paper leaves.

Stephanie Green (SFS ’05) and Janet Lawson (SFS ’04) decided to make the tree to show their solidarity with Muslim students who fear they will become targets of misdirected anger.

“No one should target Muslims as the `bad guys’ because they are praying too and they feel bad too,” Green said.

Over 200 students wrote prayers and donated a total of $500 at the table during SAC fair on Saturday. An anonymous donor bought the tree for $100.